question for experienced poets

[shemthepenman]

Hi there! I have a basic question for the more experienced writers/ poets out there.
What really constitutes a "poetry collection"? I mean, do all the poems have to relate to one another? That is the most common kind I've seen.
 Or can it be kind of a greatest hits compilation? How many poems in typical collections (or pages...or line counts) I'm just trying to get an overview here...any advice is appreciated
Thanks!

being the most experienced and bestest poet ever, i can safely say that a collection of poems 'really' constitutes a poetry collection. one poem just won't cut it.

it is nice to have a theme, but not obligatory. in fact, personally, sometimes, in my more cynical moments, i think the whole themed poetry book is pandering to the dominance of the novel.

you can have a greatest hits collection, but this is for dead or well established poets. most poets don't really publish enough to warrant a greatest hits collection.

one can just throw everything they've written into a book, give it a title that kinda gives the impression of coherence, and that'll do. in a lot of cases, the style of the poet will serve for a theme. if you read, for example, tarantula by Bob Dylan, [if i remember correctly] it finishes each poem like a letter--yours flat hat McGuire, for exmple. this little style flourish is enough to give the sense of a cohesive whole--even though that particular book does have a soft narrative thread.

if you are going to throw all the poems you've ever written into a collection then maybe take some time to organise them properly, maybe even chronologically; and as long as you're any good, with a unique voice, it should be enough. i made the mistake, about a year ago, of sself-publishing a small collection of poems to sell, exclusively, at an art exhibition [i only printed about 20 copies] and just throwing together anything i had written, and realised it looked a bit of a mess, without any consistency. needless to say, i only sold about 5. and one of those was to someone i actually know.

NOTE: i am so slow at writing by the time i had published this comment Leanne and Dale had already said everything worth saying :/ curse you fast typers! damn you all to hell!